By Lee Weyhrich
PINSON — Pinson City Councilman Robbie Roberts has created a new, more detailed version of the budget for city council members to look at.
At last week’s city council meeting, he suggested changes to the way the council organizes its budget reporting. Under the current system, a single line item might include several sub-categories. Roberts’ plan is to list these sub-categories so the council and the public can better follow where the money is going. The budget would also show where the city is in the current year, compared to the previous year.
“I felt like we should expand some of our categories,” Roberts said. “I feel like some of these categories don’t give us input where people can understand, they’re kind of like large pools, and it is hard to tell what is going on.”
Roberts also proposed a resolution regarding monthly reporting. The monthly report would be broken down into four columns to give an even clearer picture of where the council is, with regard to budget, through the year.
“(The first) of four columns would be the budget we passed, the second would be how much we spent in the various categories in the previous month, the next one would be how much we’ve spent from the beginning of the fiscal year through that month and the fourth one would show how much has been spent the previous year from the beginning of that year to the (same) month,” Roberts said.
Roberts believes these accounting measures would make it easier for city council members and the public to see where the city is financially throughout the year.
Both plans were well received by the city council, and will be revisited at a later meeting after minor changes can be made.
In other Pinson news, Triangle Park has received a drastic makeover. Girl Scout Troop 142 gave a presentation regarding the work it did at Triangle Park. The scouts installed a new flower bed at the park shaped, cleverly, like a triangle. All the supplies and labor were donated. The troop was presented with T-shirts from the city council.